Scott LaFaro: Chronology 1959
(Marty Paich   Stan Kenton   Herb Geller   Tony Scott   Bill Evans)

Date

Place

Event

1959 (aet. 23)

 (probably late-Dec 58 to mid-Jan 59)

 "Paul Bley took his new quartet into the Masque club on Washington [Boulevard] a few blocks from the Hillcrest [club]. Lineup is Bobby Hutchinson [sic, in recté, Hutcherson] vibes; Scott LaFaro, bass; Nick Martinis, drums; and Bley on piano." -- Dick Hadlock, Down Beat (January 22, 1959) p. 52.
 

 Note:  Mr. Steven D. Harris, author of Kenton Kronicles, and an authority on the discography of Stan Kenton, has informed me that based upon his research and documentation, the bassist on this Kenton recording At Ukiah! is Red Kelly not Scott LaFaro. 

 Accordingly, I have removed this recording from my LaFaro discography and placed it on my Update page (under deletions) for future reference.
 

 Mon 02 and
 Tue 03 Mar

Mon 02 Mar and Wed 22 Apr

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue sessions recorded.
 

Fri 06 Mar

Santa Monica

 This photo (Stan Kenton, piano and LaFaro is an excerpt from a larger one (10-by-14-in.) of the entire orchestra, courtesy of Steven D. Harris's Stan Kenton Archives.

 This was LaFaro's first gig with the band. The blown-up photo is very similar to the one shown on the LP cover of On the Road on the Artistry label." (S. Harris, undated letter, rec'd in 2002)
 

 A reminiscence of LaFaro by Kenton trombonist Archie LeCoque:

"My roommates for the three years with Stan's band were Bill Trujillo, Billy Catalano and, during the spring of '59, bassist Scott La Faro.  Scott and I decided we were awfully pale and decided to buy a sun lamp.  We would lay under it after work and a few times fell asleep and got burnt very badly. Stan used to harp on us all the time to get rid of that sun lamp. Scott wasn't what one would consider a big band bass player.  We all knew something important was going to happen with this guy.  But he only lived another two years after that, the result of a car accident while on tour with pianist Bill Evans."

(from Steven D. Harris, Kenton Kronicles, p. 169 -- in a 22 Nov 02 e-mail from Mr. Harris)

Friday 03 April

LaFaro's 23rd birthday anniversary

 Fri 17 Apr

 Note: According to D. Russell Connor, Benny Goodman: Wrappin' It Up (Latham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996). LaFaro rehearsed with the Goodman band (17 April) which band a week later (Fri 24 April) began a three-week tour of the US and Canada.

 (E-mail, 05 Sep 97, Suzanne Eagleston, Librarian, Yale University Music Library.)
 

 Mon 04 and Tue 05 May

John Coltrane, Giant Steps recorded.
 

 Thu 21 May

 Jazz quartet and quintet with Herb Geller, alto saxophone; Elvin Jones, drums; Thad Jones, trumpet; Hank Jones, piano; and Barbara Long, vocals. Notes by Joe Muranyi. (From the Monti discography.)
 

 Also around this time, pianist Larry Vuckovich of San Francisco, recalls Scott working at the Jazz Workshop with Sonny Rollins, tenor; Elmo Hope, pianist; and Lenny McBrown, drummer.  Vuckovich also remembers an occasion at the Blackhawk when, during a solo, the club's telephone started ringing, and LaFaro immediately began imitating the ringing phone with his playing (?strumming) the bass's upper register, echoing the phone.

 Larry Vuckovich also sat in for pianist Vince Guaraldi, who was working with Billy Higgins, LaFaro, and leader Stan Getz, at the Blackhawk.  He remembers in particular the group's playing the tune, 'You Don't Know What Love Is'. (phone conversation with Larry Vuckovich, 24 December 2001)
 

 Wed 28 and
  Thu 29 Oct

 Recording: Sung Heroes. Tony Scott. [Compact Disc] Featuring Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro, Paul Motian. [S.l.:] Sunnyside Communications, Inc., 1989. SSC-1015-D. 1 sound disc ; analog to digital , 4 and 3/4 in. Note: This recording is similar to Dedications.

 Tony Scott comments: "Scott LaFaro worked with me but I never really had a chance to know him. He worked with me and it seemed to me that he was a very quiet man and very serious musician and it was a shame that he left life so early.  I would like to have worked with him on more jobs and more records."

 (E-mail from Tony Scott, 5 Aug 02)
 

Sat 28 Nov

 with Monk, piano and leader; Elvin Jones, drums; and possibly Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone, at Town Hall, NYC, Saturday, two shows 8 pm and 11 pm.

-- Ad in the Village Voice (Wed 25 Nov 59) p. 3 --

and

-- the New York Times (Thu 26 Nov 59) p. 57 --

 Reviewed:  John S. Wilson, New York Times, Monday, November 30, 1959, p. 26:  "Mr. Monk, who is normally the 'far out' element on any program on which he appears, found himself on a bill that included [Ornette] Coleman and Cecil Taylor."

 Reviewed: Whitney Balliett, "Jazz Concerts: Historic," The New Yorker (December 5, 1959) pp. 150-152:  "Coleman was followed by Taylor, who at his best comes close to fusing a jazz intent with classical patterns and harmonies, but who, in his two numbers, seemed static and heavy in contrast to Coleman. After an interlude by Lee Konitz, a cool alto saxophonist, and sung by Ernestine Anderson, Monk played three numbers that were notable for a slow, hymn-like rendering of 'Crepuscule with Nellie' and for the accompaniment by Scott LaFaro on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. Although Jones played so strenuously in the last number that he obliterated Monk -- and everyone else -- he proved that he is the only drummer besides Art Blakey who can manage Monk's jarring rhythmic peregrinations." 
 

Mon 28 Dec